Penina, Lukas, and Fredrick spoke to our follow up team about how they spent their cash transfers and how this money impacted their lives. Each household has different responsibilities and needs, and cash transfers give recipients flexibility to set their own priorities.Penina Penina, age 29, lives with her husband Thomas and four children. Penina: I […]
Blog - Recipients
Candid thoughts from staff, donors, and recipients on our work and the broader movement towards cash transfers.
Recipients
In their own words: Siprosa, Jane, and Teresia
Siprosa, Jane, and Teresia spoke to our backcheck team this week about their hardest moments, their proudest moments, and how they plan to spend their cash transfers. Interestingly, all three randomly selected recipients are widows. Our enrollment data shows that widows make up about 24% of those surveyed in this community.Siprosa Siprosa lives in the […]
Recipients
In their own words: Homelessness and hope
Recipient Charles, a 42-year-old farmer, recently spoke to our backcheck team about his greatest hardships, greatest accomplishments, and hopes for the future (added explanation in italics). Charles was one of 16 recipients selected for in-depth followup this week. We selected his story to share because the translation was relatively clear (something we’re working at getting […]
Recipients
In their own words: I am aging very fast
Recipient Charles, a 72-year-old farmer, recently spoke to our team about his challenges and hopes for the future (added explanation in italics). On hardship: Looking back, I feel the biggest challenge was that my wife and I only had one child, a daughter. So at times I think that if God blessed us with more […]
Recipients
In their own words: GiveDirectly’s first recipients reflect on the past three years
Last week, I met with six randomly-chosen recipients from the first villages GiveDirectly enrolled in 2012. We gathered in the home of Joshua, one of the recipients, who had used part of his transfer to build a permanent home for his family. We discussed challenges, goals, and the various ways these recipients had invested their […]
Recipients
In their own words: Half-broken house
Recipient Nyadeje, a 55-year-old farmer and mother of four, recently spoke to our backcheck team about her current living situation, and what she hopes to accomplish with the transfer (added explanation in italics). On hardship: My biggest hardship has been to raise money to make a better house since I lost my spouse. The house […]
Recipients
In their own words: Initial reactions to free money
Insights from Helen and Kevin, Teresa and Odhiambo, and Christine Can you imagine a stranger coming to your door offering a year’s income, no strings attached? Neither could our recipients, until it happened (and even then, many still didn’t believe the offer was real). In the interviews below, three randomly-selected recipients recount what went through […]
Recipients
In their own words: Nobody said building a house would be easy
George, a 42-year-old Village Elder and father of six living in Western Kenya spoke to GiveDirectly about the process he went through when deciding how to spend his transfer. George’s village and George himself were randomly selected for this interview. The interview has been shortened for clarity and length. You can read the full transcript […]
Recipients
GiveDirectly has a song?
Recently, we found out that one of our recipients used his transfer to start a band; he bought instruments and hired seven other musicians and four dancers. They play paying gigs around their community and have even put out an album. Our favorite track is a song about GiveDirectly. It’s not only catchy and fun […]
Recipients
How our recipients celebrate Christmas
Sometimes it feels like we’re worlds apart from our recipients: (most of) our domestic team is based in NYC, whereas our recipients live in rural Kenya and Uganda; and the $1000 we send is more than a year’s income for our recipients, but it’s just another month’s rent in NYC. Despite these differences, some things […]